Being efficient is generally seen as positive, so surely Christians should aim to be so? After interviewing dozens of people about their workplace experiences, Nick Megoran disagrees
I wonder what your favourite Christmas film is? One of mine is Arthur Christmas. In it, Steve Klaus, Santa’s ambitious eldest son, revolutionises the annual Christmas run. Dressed in army camouflage, the 1st Field Elf Battalion sweep through neighbourhoods using grappling hooks and electronic door-breaking equipment in order to deliver presents.
But in this slick and efficient operation directed from Steve’s NASA-style control room, one child, Gwen, is missed. Nonetheless, Steve concludes the mission is a success. After all, the margin of error was only “0.0000000001514834”. Boasting that his department “has delivered an outstanding Christmas”, he promises to get a present to Gwen “within the window of Christmas”.
Steve’s younger brother, the hapless Arthur Christmas, refuses to accept this. Dusting down Santa’s old-fashioned sledge and bringing the reindeer out of retirement, he braves multiple dangers to deliver Gwen’s present just before she wakes up on Christmas morning. In reward, he (not Steve) is recognised as Santa’s true successor.
Toxic workplaces
With his smart suits and management-lingo, Steve is a hideous parody of the bosses that so many of us suffer under - and spotlights the problems with efficiency perfectly.
Take Keira* a junior academic at a UK university. After her PhD, she worked for years on insecure contracts doing research for other people. For the employer, this was an efficient use of cheap labour. But Keira wasn’t given any time for her own activities and felt she was constantly failing.
God goes out of his way to care for the least important
Because her employer didn’t regard it is as efficient to provide nursery childcare, she wasn’t able to network after hours, essential for securing a permanent job. Outrageously, her boss passed off her work as his own but, as he was responsible for renewing her annual contract, she felt powerless to complain. “There wasn’t a single annual review that I didn’t leave in tears” she told me. She ended up with a sense of “learned helplessness”, a term psychologist Martin Seligman used to describe laboratory rats when they are punished indiscriminately and end up docile.
The origins of efficiency
The origins of the modern workplace cult of efficiency go back to Frederick Taylor, an American engineer. In 1911, he published The Principles of Scientific Management. Taylor feared that employees were lazy and increasingly willing to argue for better working conditions. These evils could be eliminated, thought Taylor, by pursuing efficiency.
He tested his ideas on a labourer at a steel works in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, promising him higher wages if he did exactly what he was told without answering back. Shadowing the worker as he shovelled iron, Taylor gave precise instructions on where to stand and move, when to take breaks, etc. This significantly increased his volume of work - and his pay. Taylor was jubilant, claiming it was a win-win. His book launched the idea of ‘business management’ as a ‘science.’
The dark side of efficiency
To use time well is, of course, biblical. The psalmist prays: “Teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom” (Psalms 90:12-14). But the cult of efficiency that Taylor introduced had three negative consequences.
First, it dehumanised workers. “One of the very first requirements for a man who is fit to handle pig iron as a regular occupation”, Taylor wrote, “is that he shall be so stupid…that he more nearly resembles an ox.” It’s not surprising that people in Keira’s position end up feeling like lab rats.
Against the brutal calculation of Egypt’s efficiency-machine, we have the logic of faith in a generous God
The second effect is on managers. Taylor belonged to that class of privileged men who feared loss of control in a changing world. If work could be calculated scientifically by experts, then no one could question their wages or employment conditions. Taylor saw managers as high priests of efficiency, with unchallengeable, God-like knowledge. Such power is always open to abuse, as Keira also found out.
Finally, it had a significant effect on Taylor himself. From childhood, he was obsessed by time. He counted his steps to learn the most efficient stride. He was nervous and highly strung, suffering insomnia and nightmares. Afraid to lie on his back, he could only sleep, fitfully, when upright in a chair. He could never enjoy life or accept it as a gift from God.
Efficiency in the Bible
This is a far cry from the Bible’s view of work. The key narrative in the Old Testament is God’s delivery of his people from Egyptian rule. Exodus opens with a description of an economic system based on racialised slavery. When Moses asks Pharoah for time out from harsh labour to worship God, Pharaoh concludes that the Israelites are lazy and instructs his foremen to “make the work harder” (Exodus 5:9).
When God delivered Israel from this bondage, he decreed that, every seven years, debts were to be written off, slaves released and fields left untilled (Deuteronomy 15, Leviticus 25). God would miraculously command extra blessing on the sixth year, “so that it will produce a crop sufficient for three years” (v22). Against the brutal calculation of Egypt’s efficiency-machine, we have the logic of faith in a generous God.
In the New Testament, many of Jesus’ parables are about work: people raising crops, catching fish and sweeping homes. He tells the parable of the lost sheep to show God’s care. “What will he do?” asks Jesus, before answering his own question. He will “leave the ninety-nine on the hills and go to look for the one that wandered off” (Matthew 18:12). I can picture Frederick Taylor critically counting the number of steps he takes, thoroughly disapproving of the risk that the shepherd is exposing himself and the rest of the flock to.
Jesus’ teaching is not primarily about employment practices, it’s a parable showing us who God is. It teaches us about the grace of God, how he deals with us, and how we should act in turn – including at work.
Sally’s story
Sally* is a Christian GP in a deprived area. Her surgery is consistently voted top in the region for patient satisfaction. How does she achieve this? In part, because she has chosen to reject the government’s efficiency drive.
In the 1990s, surgeries became responsible for handling their own budgets. They could choose which services to offer and earn extra money by hitting targets. “There’s no doubt just having one practice manager who runs a surgery of 50,000 patients is more efficient than ten practice managers running ten surgeries,” says Sally. “However, when you know your patients, you recognise things that, with 50,000, you couldn’t possibly.”
When God delivered Israel from bondage, he decreed that, every seven years debts aree written off, slaves released and fields left untilled
In Sally’s practice, the doctors limit their salaries so they can employ more staff, so patients can more easily get an appointment. The personal cost is high. On average, GPs earn in excess of £100,000, but Sally and her colleagues earn a lot less. “No one needs to ski…you don’t need to send your kids to private school,” says Sally. “We stay in youth hostels, we camp.”
It also exacts a high cost in terms of time. Rather than employ expensive locums in the summer holidays, staff cover for one another. Sally often stays late to call patients and see how they are doing. “If I wasn’t a Christian, I just can’t see me having chosen to do this,” she says. “It’s way more time consuming…much less efficient.”
A different way
Sally’s example shows that there is a viable alternative to the modern cult of efficiency – it is to step out in faith, trusting in the character of a God who cares more about people than targets.
This will look different for each of us in our own contexts. To choose to live faithfully for God when that runs against the mantra of efficiency is scary. But because God is trustworthy, it’s actually gloriously liberating. It allows us to work hard and honestly with satisfaction and pleasure, but not lose sleep over inefficiency.
* Names have been changed to protect identities.
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